Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Vegan Palak Paneer

As I mentioned in Sunday's post, Nasoya was kind enough to send me a handful of coupons for free samples of their tofu products and sandwich spreads. Though I typically buy the generic extra-firm Whole Foods tofu, I picked out a butt-load (well, maybe not a butt-load, but several packages) of Nasoya tofu on my last grocery trip. One such find was Nasoya's Lite Firm Tofu.

Now, I'm not exactly into low-fat eating, but I do like to cut calories when taste and quality aren't sacrificed. After all, eating less calories in one meal means I can eat more dessert later. Thankfully, this lite tofu tastes exactly like the regular Nasoya firm tofu. It has 40 calories per serving versus 80 calories per serving, and I'm honestly not sure how they did that. Judging by the ingredient lists on both tofus, the lite tofu contains a few more added vitamins. But for the most part, they have the the same make-up. Maybe it's magic...

Anyhow, I decided to try the tofu in this Vegan Palak Paneer from 101 Things to Do with Tofu:

I've never had real palak paneer, a North Indian dish typically made with cottage cheese and spinach. But I know this vegan version looks very much like the dairy version, which also contains white cubes. It was super simple, and minimally seasoned. The tofu reaches a firmer, more cheese-like consistency after its boiled for several minutes and then drained in a colander.

I served the palak paneer over smoked spelt, a delightful little chewy whole grain from Germany. Mihl from Seitan is My Motor sent me a bag of it in a care package from Germany last year.

Though I've had the 101 Things to Do with Tofu cookbook since October, this recipe is the first I've made from it. It's a cute spiral-bound volume with mostly vegan (some vegetarian), mostly easy-peasy tofu recipes. Worth checking out for some fresh, new tofu ideas.

i've never had real palak paneer before either, Bianca - but it's looking like i've gotta try a vegan version of it, for sure! that's awesome that the lite tofu tastes just as good as the regular. i'm gonna have to try it out as our grocery store puts a lot of the nasoya tofu on sale quite often. yay!

Looks good! I second Magdelene: I took a vegetarian Indian cooking class once and we made paneer from scratch. It tasted exactly like tofu, with the same texture, so much so that I wondered why we didn't just use tofu...

My name is Bianca ...

About Me

I'm a 9-year vegan, 19-year vegetarian from the Mid-South, not too far from the muddy banks of the Mississippi River. And that means cornbread, butter beans, and collard greens.
These days, I live in Memphis. Check out my cookbook — Cookin' Crunk. It's filled with yummilicious veganized soul food and country classics.